1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to loose leaf notebook binders, and more particularly concerns a binder having means for punching holes in sheets of paper, thereby enabling said paper to be held by said binder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Ordinary loose-leaf binder mechanisms well-known in the art utilize two identical elongated rectangular hinge plates having opposed inner and outer long edges. The plates lie in abutment at their inner edges, which are hingedly joined. The plates are concealed beneath a housing having a generally arcuate upper surface whose centerline is directly above said inner edges. Opposed retaining lips downwardly directed from said upper surface retain the outer long edges of the plates.
Mating arms are attached to the plates, each arm constituting one half of a circular ring. When the abutting inner edges are forced upwardly toward the upper surface of the housing, the plates snap into an inverted V-shaped juxtaposition with attendant separation of the arms. Downward movement of said inner edges causes the plates to pass through coplanar into V-shaped juxtaposition, causing closing of the arms.
The binder mechanism is generally attached to the central back panel of the notebook by at least two spaced apart posts that extend through the plates and engage the arcuate upper surface on its centerline.
Numerous hole punching devices have been disclosed in the prior art. Various adaptations to ringed notebooks have been employed in attempts to simultaneously punch a linear array of holes adjacent one edge of a sheet of paper. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,774 to Ryan discloses a loose-leaf notebook having rings formed from flat sheet metal, each having paired facing substantially flat panels. The panels are equipped with interactive male and female punch dies. A page may be inserted between the open rings and the facing plates. When the rings are snapped shut, an array of holes is punched. The rings must be opened to accommodate the page; closed to punch the holes; opened to release the page; then closed to bind the page. The action of the rings snapping shut may cause damage to the page. Furthermore, Ryan's hole punching plates create an obstruction to free page-turning movement of pages held by the loose-leaf rings, particularly when the holes of some pages have been punched slightly far from the edge of the page. Moreover, the process of manufacturing loose-leaf rings from flat sheet metal may be expensive, rendering the notebook design impractically expensive.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,297 to Roy discloses a similar hole punch device wherein a hole-punching die mechanism is located beneath the loose-leaf binder mechanism. This device punches the array of holes upon the opening of the rings. Due to the position f the hole-punching means, the number of pages which may be simultaneously punched in a stack is limited. The Roy device also appears to be expensive to manufacture due to the numerous moving parts.
In those instances where hole-punching is achieved by causing separated male and female punching members to travel toward each other to act upon intervening paper, alignment problems are encountered which cause malfunction such as jamming or improper hole-punching. Such misalignment problems are accentuated when one punching member is associated with the binder mechanism and the other punching member is associated with the central back panel upon which the binder mechanism is mounted. By incorporating both punching members into the binder mechanism in an attempt to overcome the misalignment problem, impairment is often encountered in the more important function of the binder mechanism, namely securing a multitude of pages in a freely turnable manner.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-ring loose-leaf binder mechanism having means for simultaneously punching a linear array of holes in a single sheet of paper, or stack of paper sheets.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a binder mechanism as in the foregoing object having means for punching holes merely upon manipulation of said binder mechanism or its binder rings.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a binder mechanism of the aforesaid nature resistant to malfunction.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a binder mechanism of the aforesaid nature wherein the hole-punching feature does not interfere with the page-holding feature of the rings.
Further objects of this invention are to provide a binder of the aforesaid nature which is simple to operate, has relatively few moving parts, is durable, and amenable to low cost manufacture.
Other beneficial objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description.